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HUN. JAMES ALI-IIEI) I'KAIICE 



■K MAK\ I AMI, 



N 1 '1' 1-: 1 > 8 '1- A T !•: .< .s K X A 'J' H 



ONE OF THE RECIENTS OF THE 



S.UI TllSOMAN LNSTIirTlON. 



PBEPAREIJ AT TlIK lllilJlGST OF THR BOARD 



PROF. ALEXAXDER DALLAS BACHE, LLP. 

■i SrPERI.NTfNOEST OF THE I', ft. COAST SURVLT 



JANUARY. 1863. 



\\' A S H 1 \ ( ; T O N : 
PUHI.|llKI> BY THF- SMITHSONIAX INSTITUTION. 

1 .S 6 3 . 



EULOGY 



ON 



HON. JAMES ALFRED PEARCE, 



OF MARYLAND, 



UNITED STATES SENATOR: 



ONE OF THE REGENTS OF TITE 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



PREPARED AT THE REQUEST OF THE BOARD 



BY 

PROF. ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE, LL.D., 

SUPKKINTENUENT OF THE U. 8. COAST SDRVF.Y. 



JANUARY, 1863 




/ 



WASHINGTON: 
PUBLISHED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 

18G3 



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EXTRACT FROM THE PROCEEDINGS 

^ OF THE 

BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



At a meeting of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution, held January 31, 18G3, Professor Henry, the Secretary, 
announced the death of Hon. James A. Pearce, one of the 
Regents 

Prof. Bache, after appropriate remarks, offered the following 
resolutions, which were unanimously adopted : — 

Resolved, That the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution deeply mourn the loss of their distinguished fellow-regent, 
James Alfred Pearce. 

liesolved, That in the death of Mr. Pearce our country has lost 
a refined and influential citizen, the Senate of the United States 
an able, judicious, honest statesman, and this institution an active, 
intelligent, and learned Regent. 

Resolved, That we sincerely condole with the afflicted family 
of Mr. Pearce, and offer to them our heartfelt sympathy in their 
great bereavement. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be communicated by 
the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution to the family of the 
deceased. 

On motion of Mr. Trumbull, it was — 

Resolved, That Professor Baciie be requested to furnish a copy 
of his remarks in relation to Hon. James A. Pearce, for insertion 
in the journal of the Board of Regents. 



EULOGY 



Again has death invaded our circle, and taken 
from our councils and our active sympathies one of 
the most admirably gifted intellects which has at 
any time been called upon to form the character or 
direct the labors of the Smithsonian Institution. A 
member of the Executive Committee from nearly the 
second year of the organization under the act of 
Congress of 1846, attentive to every detail, whether 
scientific, administrative, or financial, Mr. Pearce was 
always prompt at the call of every duty. His entire 
and cordial acquiescence in the form of organization 
adopted for the Institution, his liberal and zealous 
co-operation with the Board of Regents, his earnest 
support of, and unftdtering confi.dence in, the discre- 
tion and integrity of its Secretary, were as conspicu- 
ous as they were productive of the most lasting and 
important benefits. And though it is true that the 
general form and policy of the Institution were de- 
termined under the authority of Congress, by its 
first Board of llegents, yet it is quite as certain that 
strenuous action was afterwards needed to maintain 



6 

it in its adopted course, and secure it from projected 
innovations which, though strenuously advocated at 
the time, few now regard with aught but disfavor. 
To this end no one lent more effectual aid than our 
lamented colleague. Although, from taste and the 
conditions of his active life, he might more properly 
be styled a literary man, yet were his scientific at- 
tainments by no means inconsiderable, and a liberal 
and cultivated mind, which admitted of no narrow 
views, enabled him to embrace, in all its comprehen- 
sive simplicity, the idea of the generous foreigner 
who, in founding this Institution, consecrated his 
fortune to " the increase and diffusion of knowlcdjje 
among men." 

In whatever Mr. Pearce engaged he exhibited 
the same spirit. Marked as a leader from his boy- 
hood, at school as at college, in his profession as in 
the councils of the nation, in his neighborhood, his 
State, his country, as well as in the church with 
which he was connected, he stood distinguished for 
an enlightened estimate and an efficient support of 
whatever is elevated or calculated to elevate. Re- 
fined in his tastes, brilliant in society, instructive 
from the affluence of his ideas and extent of infor- 
mation, without ostentation, as without pretension, 
social, genial, even playful among his intimates — 
such was the associate whom we must long mourn, 
feeling that at the council board as in the familiar 
and friendly circle, we have lost one who strength- 



ened us in our adhesion to what is right, good, or 
true, while ever prompt to lead us wherever progress 
held out rational hopes of improvement. 

Generally, men of the temperament we have 
described are impatient of details ; but this was not 
at all so with our departed friend. It afforded him 
pleasure to systematize and reduce to order even the 
dry details of finance, and a wonderful memory and 
a quick perception enabled him to pass them in rapid 
review with a scrutiny of every particular. His 
mental vision was as minute as comprehensive, and 
his analytical faculty never dismissed a subject of 
investigation until he was thoroughly satisfied with 
the arrangement, the method, the results : in a word, 
he was content with little less than the perfection of 
whatever occupied his attention or claimed his soli- 
citude. 

The objects which in Congress occupied most of 
his attention, and which it gave him most pleasure 
to defend and sustain, were those connected with 
literature and science, and in these he showed the 
same qualities which, as chairman of our Executive 
Committee, he has here so often exhibited. With 
the great interests of state, and the high objects of 
national politics he was abundantly qualified to 
grapple; in fact, he shrunk from no occasion in 
which to exert himself, when enlarged views and 
skilful powers of debate could be rendered serviceable 
to his country or the world. But if duty called upon 



him from timo to time for such efforts, still it was to 
objects promotive of art and science and high civiliza- 
tion, to means for man's moral and intellectual im- 
provement, and for the enlargement of his know- 
ledge and power over nature, that he turned with 
ever new and unwearied interest. To him probably 
more than to any other senator the library of Con- 
gress was indebted for the augmented fund which it 
has now for some years enjoyed, and for the care 
taken in the selection of the materials which render 
its shelves so useful. The Exploring Expedition w^is 
more than once indebted to his earnest and persistent 
efforts for the continuance of the means of publica- 
tion of its results ; the Coast Survey for expositions 
of its importance to the country and the world ; th(» 
Smithsonian for warding off assaults, and reconciling 
enthusiastic but misguided opposition ; the naval 
and military expeditions, boundary surveys, and ex- 
plorations, for close, searching investigations, which 
led to important improvements and to cordial sup- 
])ort. The great work of the extension of the 
Capitol found in him a wise advocate and judicious 
friend. Not afraid of what was new, he yet aimed 
at nothing for the sake of novelty. In connection 
with the decoration of the public buildings, our 
sculptors and painters found in him a most en- 
lightened appreciator of their works, and one always 
ready to promote the cause of tlnnr art by l(\gitimate 
means. 



9 

He had a romarkable power of attaching to liini- 
solf men of science, literature, and art, and, in re- 
turn, found in them some of his most intimate and 
highly-prized companionships. His friendships were 
warm, and once formed, were proof against all trials 
of absence or change of fortune. Many of his ar- 
dent attachments reverted to the friends and asso- 
ciates of his parents, and to family relations of even 
an older date, acquiring in his breast a more sacred 
title to cherished regard from the claims of the past. 

The genial elements of his character naturally ex- 
panded most freely in the circle of his family and 
friends, where he was truly and ever at home. His 
garden, its fruits and flowers, were his habitual de- 
light ; his farm and its operations seemed to touch by 
association the springs of his deepest affections. He 
superintended every process with a judgment rarely 
at ftmlt, and watched all the varied developments of 
nature with the interest of the amateur or the natu- 
ralist. Whoever had not seen Mr. Pearce in his 
dwelling, in his garden, or upon his farm, knew 
him but imperfectly. 

James Alfred Pearce, the colleague, the coun- 
sellor, the friend, to whom we must now bid a final 
adieu, was born in the town of Alexandria, then part 
of the District of Columbia, December 14, 1805. 
His parents, who were of Scottish descent, and citi- 
zens of INIaryland, dying during his childhood, the 
care of his education devolved upon his maternal 



10 

grandfather, the late Dr. Dick, of Alexandria, an 
eminent physician of that day, who will be remem- 
bered by the student of American history as having 
been one of the medical attendants who ministered 
at the dying bed of Washington. So rapid yet 
thorough was the progress of the young student in 
the rudimentary stages of education, that he gradu- 
ated at Princeton College at the boyish age of seven- 
teen, bearing away from competitors of no ordinary 
ability, and much subsequent distinction, the highest 
honors of his class. Having adopted the law as his 
profession, and permanently settled at Chestertown, 
Maryland, the former residence of his parents, he 
soon received the earnest of future success in the 
confidence, affection, and support of the community 
— a community to whose favor he might, indeed, 
already look forward in virtue of the memory of a 
meritorious and distinguished ancestry. His first 
step upon the more public stage, which was thence- 
forth to be the scene of his labors and success, was 
his unsolicited election to the lei^islature of Mary- 
land, in 1831. From that day, with a single interval 
of two years, his talents and time were devoted to 
the service of his fellow-citizens in the halls of legis- 
lation, his career having led liim, by a progression 
founded on the uncanvassed but ever-increasing con- 
fidence and respect of the people, through the House 
of Kepresentatives to the Senate chamber, in which 



11 

he was fulfilling the unexpired term of a third elec- 
tion at the period of his death. 

His characteristic qualities and tendencies as a 
legislator have been already slightly touched upon in 
this memorial, but whoever recalls the momentous 
events, the brilliant and important debates which, 
from 1835 to 1861, fixed the public attention, and 
excited the alternate hopes and fears of contending 
parties; whoever pictures to himself the majestic 
forms which then occupied the legislative arena, will 
remember that, through all these events, and mea- 
suring himself in no unequal competition with the 
foremost men of that earnest time, our colleague 
continued to advance steadily in public appreciation, 
to fill a yet wider and wider space in the eyes of the 
country, that on him rests no imputation of having 
ever purchased favor or advancement by a sacrifice 
of the slightest principle, or of having once deviated 
into any of those equivocal positions which some- 
times bring disrepute on illustrious names ; whoever 
shall recall and consider these things, will un- 
doubtedly be qualified to form a more adequate and 
vivid conception of his labors and his worth than 
could be derived from any portraiture which this 
occasion would permit, or perhaps even the most 
labored eulogy could supply. 

Nor were striking testimonials wanting to his 
peculiar and conspicuous merits : it rested but with 
himself to occupy positions of the highest public 



12 

distinction. A place in the cabinet and a scat 
in the federal judiciary were successively offered 
him ; on more than one occasion his name ^Yas pub- 
licly canvassed in connection with the presidency of 
the United States. The former, however, he de- 
clined ; the latter he steadily discountenanced. He 
seems to have felt that the Senate chamber was the 
proper sphere for his peculiar tastes and powers — a 
sphere equal to his well-regulated ambition, not be- 
low his admitted merit. The patronage incident to 
the executive branch of government involves much 
that would have been repugnant to his feelings ; the 
judiciary has objections peculiar to itself in the ever- 
recurrent and monotonous nature of its functions ; the 
representative department of Congress was for him 
too much influenced by the fluctuations of popular 
opinion. The Senate, in the stability of its tenure, 
and the variety of its discussions, in its character of 
a consultati\c and executive as well as legislative 
body, in the dignity and importance of its delibera- 
tions, involving the interests of States and the rela- 
tions of national intercourse, seemed exactly fitted 
to give scope to his abilities, and to satisfy every 
aspiration he might indulge for usefulness or consi- 
deration. Perhaps it was in the committee-room of 
the Senate that his influence made itself more par- 
ticularly felt, for here the extent of his information, 
the weight of his character, the directness and in- 
tegrity of his purpose, his patience for details, his 



13 

familiarity with the forms of business, and ai)titude 
in applying them with logical acuteness to the disen- 
tanglement of questions of fact and law, his co-opera- 
tive spirit, his genial and companionable nature and. 
manner, all conspired to give authority to his deci- 
sions, and to insure reliance and acquiescence on 
the part of those with whom he acted. 

Had Mr. Pearce not embraced the profession of 
law, he would doubtless, under suitable circumstances, 
have been celebrated as an agriculturist. Had he 
not given himself to political life, he could not 
have failed of eminence in science or in literature. 
It is indeed rare to meet with one whose capabilities 
and excellencies were so varied and so distinct, nor 
is it possible that, knowing him as I have done, I 
should speak of him otherwise than frankly and from 
the heart, though conscious of the imperfect repre- 
sentation which I have been able to give of a man so 
intrinsically great in all the elements which consti- 
tute true greatness, so entirely beloved for all that 
refers itself to the amenities of social intercourse and 
the sacred endearments of home. 

In conclusion, it is proper to add that the pecu- 
liarities which marked his character during the 
active years of his life exhibited themselves in the 
closing period of his career under a new but har- 
monious aspect. Afflicted with an incurable malady, 
he contemplated his approaching end and endured 
his intense suffering with the unwavering faith and 



14 

resigned patience of a Christian, The religious 
principles which he had imbibed in childhood, and 
which had perhaps imperceptibly formed the basis 
of his character, became the dominant objects of his 
thoughts, and the consolation and happiness of his 
last hours. 



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